On Blogger relations and Influencer relations
There's a really interesting discussion on the emergence of Blogger Relations and so-called Influencer Relations at the ARmageddon blog. It's based on the idea that, as existing analysts increase their use of blogs and new analysts gain prominence through blogs, traditional analyst relations (AR) must evolve.
AR professionals are clearly unsettled by this move. Analysts have typically dealt in secrets, based on private briefings under NDA. Blogs, on the other hand, trade in openness. There's obvious conflict here. How blogs impact the analyst community is uncertain, hence the discussion.
There's an important shift happening in marketing generally (and I include corporate communications in this category). The shift is towards two-way communications with the market, sometimes called conversational marketing, or Marketing 2.0 (yeuch!). Blogging is an online version of this, but it's happening offline in a big way, often as part of a Word of Mouth marketing strategy. Good sources of info for this move include Naked Conversations, Seth Godin and Andy Sernowitz.
AR professionals are clearly unsettled by this move. Analysts have typically dealt in secrets, based on private briefings under NDA. Blogs, on the other hand, trade in openness. There's obvious conflict here. How blogs impact the analyst community is uncertain, hence the discussion.
There's an important shift happening in marketing generally (and I include corporate communications in this category). The shift is towards two-way communications with the market, sometimes called conversational marketing, or Marketing 2.0 (yeuch!). Blogging is an online version of this, but it's happening offline in a big way, often as part of a Word of Mouth marketing strategy. Good sources of info for this move include Naked Conversations, Seth Godin and Andy Sernowitz.
A few thoughts on the debate:
- Blogger Relations and Influencer Relations are functions of marketing, as are Analyst relations and PR. It's all marketing, just perhaps not direct marketing. So all of these "Relations" branches are subject to the big shift towards two-way communications.
- The term "Relations" is missing the point. In my 12 years working in analyst firms, vendors always think of analysts in marketing terms. Vendors understand the influence analysts have over prospects, and they market to analysts in order to affect that influence. So rather than "relations" (which sounds friendly and cosy) we should really call it marketing. That's why we're open about our use of the Influencer Marketing term - it is what it says.
- We should treat all influencers with the respect they deserve. This may mean adjusting our perceptions of who is important. Blogging is enabling the small guys (eg Redmonk, MWD) to compete with Gartner, Forrester et al. Ranking and prioritisation of analysts is more important nowadays.
- We mustn't forget the non-analyst influencers. They're just as important as analysts, and need to be marketed to (though in different ways).
Labels: analyst relations, influencer marketing, influencers
posted by Duncan Brown at 4:07 pm
2 Comments:
Duncan, you make a few good points:
- vendors often miss the "relations" aspects in "Analyst Relations"
- many analysts are also at unease with the Briefings 2.0 concept
- we've posted before on the fact that AR is in a unique position to mutate into Influencer Relations (IfR).
Thanks, ARonaut.
I have a couple of difficulties in believing AR will morph into IfR:
- Different influencers will need to be handled in different ways. Do AR processes cope with this variety?
- AR stops at relations, which is marketing to analysts. Influencer Marketing goes beyond this and integrates more fully with sales, which is ultimately what it's all about. I think "Relations" misses a trick here.
But despite all of this, AR folk are often the first to "get" Influencer Marketing, and see the obvious benefits to AR and beyond. Thus they are often seeding the Influencer Market, and selling into their firms.
Post a Comment
<< Home